Diana sat bolt upright in her chair.
“You means he’s to be the next person robbed?”
Mr. Superbus nodded gravely.
“From information received,” he said.
“But does he know?”
“I’ve dropped an ’int, miss,” said Julius. “But on the whole it’s better that he didn’t know. A man gets jiggered, so to speak, if he knows a crook is after him, and that hampers the officers of the law.” He shook his head. “Many a good case have I lost that way.”
“What do you mean exactly by impersonation?” asked Diana, troubled. “Do you mean to say that, when Mr. Selsbury is out, somebody who looks very much like him is liable to walk into this house and help himself to anything that he can find?”
“Cheques mostly, or money,” affirmed Julius. “He works big, this fellow. Nothing small about him, you understand. You could leave your silver around, and he wouldn’t touch so much as an egg-spoon. He’s one of the big gang—I’ve had my eye on him for years.”
“This is very alarming,” said Diana after a long silence.
“It is alarming,” agreed Julius, “but at the same time, if you’ve got the right kind of man around to protect you, a fellow who’s a bit sharp, it’s not alarming. But he’s got to be clever, and he’s got to have experience of what I might term the criminal classes, I should say.”